Learn to Climb the Tree of Knowledge
Everyone seems to be an expert nowadays. At least, that is the impression that the Wikipedia generation would like to project. They equate the transient power of having information at their fingertips with the far more rarefied state of acquiring and retaining actual knowledge. It is much easier to live in a state of blissful ignorance, knowing that all the information is out there if needed, rather than to put in the graft and actually learn something.
Undoubtedly, the capacity to access almost any fact at any time is one of the benefits of the internet. It is the gift that keeps on giving. As long as the minefield of errors can be navigated and truth can be sieved from rumour, then the internet is an excellent resource. In part, it is also responsible for the reduced inclination for learning among young people.
After all, why would someone put in the hours of slog and effort to learn reams of background facts when a simple search on Google should throw up all they could ever need to know on almost any given subject? At least, that is what many people seem to think.
Lost Without My iPhone
Do not get me wrong: When I am working or want to find out more about someone or something, I use all the resources available to me, from books and personal contacts to the internet and social media. I would be lost without my iPhone and all its functionality (which was not even a consideration only a few years ago) and search engines are invaluable. What is important is that we use the full box of tools at our disposal, with relevance to our needs, and use them wisely to support our knowledge rather than to replace genuine learning.
When I was a child, I looked with envy at my older cousin’s wall of Encyclopædia Britannica. To a child in the 1970s, this multi-volume series of leather-bound books contained the essence of all knowledge. It was almost mystical in its capacity, imparting a rather scholarly air to any dining room bookcase. Of course, the truth is that even those crammed volumes could only provide a rudimentary grounding in most subjects. They were good at giving thumbnail sketches and definitions, as a dictionary of facts rather than words, but their ability to explore or explain was obviously limited by the scale of each entry. In its fully expanded and updated version, this bible of knowledge first seen in the 19th century has been placed on disc and is also available online. Not quite as awe-inspiring as flicking the pages of a giant book on your lap, though.
Google or Study?
That begs the question that I have heard quite frequently of late: Why would I bother to learn when I could find it on the internet in seconds? On the surface, it could be seen as a fair question. Why learn what is there at your fingertips whenever you need it? It might even be that people are losing the skill of retaining knowledge, preferring to cherry-pick when it is needed and then, once it has been put to purpose, it is forgotten almost immediately.
What that misses, however, is that knowledge is about far more than being able to reel off the facts, to be able to call on them when needed. Real knowledge is built up, layer by layer, over the years. It takes experience and practice to be truly skilled at something, to know a subject inside out and to qualify as an expert. It is about experience and exploration, and about the tangential discoveries that can be made when you get under the skin of a subject.
It is also about making mistakes and learning from them. It is about the joy of learning and the hunger for answers. Learning is like life: It is not about the destination, it is about the journey.
Marcus Agar been commissioned by Branding Magazine to write commentaries based on experience in PR and marketing. Click here to read Branding Magazine (with thanks to Aleksandar Djurić).
9 / 1 / 2012 8:04 am
Having online encyclopedia “in the hands”, today’s man is closer to information and knowledge than ever before. However, if all this were not so miracle “perfect,” we must not forget that the consumption of Internet cognitive tools or any kind of a man is losing importance in a much deeper sense. Readily available information, not classified material, goods and makes one invalid something that I designed, created and searched because now someone else makes up for it. Not putting the effort, he developed the skills that man had earlier, in spite of absorbing new content from the Internet. This is a contradiction, but like everything in the world, somewhere get somewhere you lose. What matters is the balance.